In my humble opinion, SU Athletics leaders made a bold move with their new head-coaching hire for Syracuse football, and I mean this comment to be a positive sentiment.
The Orange’s next head coach, who will be formally introduced this Monday, is New Jersey native Fran Brown, who is presently the defensive backs coach at Georgia. He’s replacing Dino Babers, who was fired by SU Athletics on November 19, just one game shy of finishing an eighth full term on the Hill.
Brown, deemed by many national experts as one of the top recruiters in college football, if not the best recruiter out there in the sport, has never been a head coach before at the collegiate level. He’s never been a coordinator, either.
So for SU Athletics officials to hire Brown, given his recruiting prowess but lack of head-coach/coordinator experience, to me is a tad bold and out of the box, and it even could be considered a bit of a “gamble,” if that’s the right word to use here.
Actually, how some national pundits are describing this decision by SU Athletics is high-risk, yet high-reward. I agree with this kind of prognostication.
Syracuse football has a new head coach in ace recruiter Fran Brown.
Now, as I noted in another recent column, a sizable number of current and former ‘Cuse players are voicing their support of Brown as the team’s next head coach.
Over the past few days, I’ve seen a ton of Syracuse football fans express excitement over Brown’s hire. However, some fans are concerned about his lack of head-coaching/coordinator experience. I even read a fan or two comment on our social media pages that they felt this hire by SU Athletics was a “joke,” for which I respectfully but adamantly disagree.
In any event, I do understand the commentary from national observers that Brown’s hire as the next Orange head coach comes with it a high-risk, high-reward opportunity.
The ‘Cuse (6-6, 2-6 in the ACC), as we all know, is about to head to its second bowl game in as many seasons, which is a positive. That being said, the Orange slumped in the second half of both the 2022 and the current 2023 stanzas, and SU athletic director John Wildhack decided it was time for a change.
Brown, whose coaching career in college football includes stints with Georgia, Rutgers, Temple and Baylor, is from Camden, N.J. SU Athletics leaders and analysts note that he is an excellent recruiter, particularly in New Jersey and throughout the Northeast region.
"ESPN’s Andrea Adelson, a highly regarded college football reporter who closely follows the Atlantic Coast Conference, said in a recent interview on The Juice on the Cuse Podcast, “It all starts with recruiting and recruiting in the northeast. And I think he puts 10 check marks into one box. If you want to be able to win at Syracuse, you have to have a lock on the northeast corridor. And the fact that he’s the No. 1 ranked recruiter in the entire country right now is a huge positive.”"
That being said, as Adelson and others have noted, Brown is coming to Central New York with no coordinator or head-coaching experience. How he fills out his coaching staff at Syracuse football, obviously, will be critical.
But, to reiterate, even if and when he brings top-flight assistants on board, Brown will still be in charge, leading a Power Five conference program in his first head-coaching gig. That could prove a lot of pressure, especially given an Orange fan base that is fed up with mediocrity.
As Adelson said, “Now, there’s going to be a huge learning curve. He’s never been a coordinator, never been a head coach before.” To me, that suggests there could be some growing pains in Brown’s first season or two at the ‘Cuse, and just how would the fan base react if that sort of situation transpired?
Then again, given his recruiting skills, perhaps Brown can bring in some high-quality players, both from the transfer portal and via the high school level. That would get fans pumped up for sure, and if Brown and his staff can get off to a solid start on the field in 2024, this could feel like a home-run hire for SU Athletics.
High risk. High reward.